


The Start of Something Already in Motion

by dimircharmer



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Character Study, Dialogue Heavy, F/M, I didn't expect the Vax/Scanlan thing to hit me like this but BOY HOWDY, Keyleth is the big spoon, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, The polycule branches off, anyway poly Vax is a hill I will die on, hinted other bits of the polycule, significant others dragging each other for the other's choice in other significant other, spoilers for episode 76, the start of Polymachina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 20:23:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8592223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dimircharmer/pseuds/dimircharmer
Summary: Seeing Vax and Scanlan in the aftermath of the fight with the pit fiend in the city of Brass, Keyleth realises something. And for once, it's her turn to start a conversation about emotions with Vax.-AU where they all got a chance to fucking sleep after that fight, holy crap. Spoilers for the most recent episode.





	

                So, this was new. And not to brag (and not to say that she was good with people) but Keyleth kinda saw this one coming. From before Vax started parading around the foyer of the mansion with Scanlan on his shoulders, even! It would have been easy to miss the actual kiss itself if Keyleth wasn’t watching him tear around the entranceway. Everyone was so tired after the battle, slumped against the walls, taking potions and naps and stock of their injuries. Vex was laying on her front, clutching Percy’s hand, as Pike ran her hands over the wounds in her back.

                And Vax, bombastic, hysterically relieved, was carrying around Scanlan on his shoulders, flipped him upsidedown and kissed him. It would have been easy to write off, in the elation and giddiness and the aftereffects of adrenaline and the hummingbird-frantic movements that Vax always had as the haste enchantment on his boots wore off. It would have been easy for everyone involved to dismiss the kiss as a spur of the moment, once and never again sort of act. And Keyleth caught a glimpse of Vax’s face as he pulled back, Scanlan already laughing it off, and Vax matching him beat for beat. She watched them both laugh it off, and saw a hint of melancholy behind Vax’s grin, and realized with a jolt that this was a choice and not an impulse.

-

“So, Vax, do you remember when you kissed Percy that one time?”

They were lying in bed, to exhaust after the battle in the middle of the Brass City to do more than strip out of their armour and lay beside each other. Deathwalker’s Ward was laid out carefully over the back of one chair, feathered draped with care over the ladder-back. Keyleth’s headdress rested on haphazardly on top of one of the chair’s posts. Vax rolled onto his side to face her, and rested his hand on her hip.

“Remind me,” he said, voice thick with near-sleep “When was that?”

“When we were fighting K’Varn?” Keyleth said, “The two of you were on the carpet, I think, and I was-“ she gestured with the arm she wasn’t laying on top of, emulating her Giant Eagle wings, “-with Pike and Scanlan, but you ran for the carpet, and then kissed him on the cheek and said-“

“Let’s get out of here, you beautiful bastard,” Vax finished, and smiled like he was too tired to remember where he and Percy stood now, “And then we did. I miss that carpet.”

“And I know you kissed Gilmore, when we found him in the basement of his shop, after Thordak almost killed him-“

“Jesus, Kiki, what’s going-“

“And now Scanlan, after we all just almost died here and-“

“Kiki, are you jealous, becau-“

“And you only kissed _me_ after _you_ almost died in Whitestone.”

Vax scrubbed at his eyes, and propped himself up on one elbow. He looked mostly awake now, and also concerned.

“Keyleth?” his voice sounded very small, “You know that it’s you, right? That I’d pick you over everyone else, every time? That I chose you?”

Keyleth felt her hands, almost of their own volition, start twisting themselves together where they lay on her chest. “You know that most people don’t, right? That most people just- she gestured to the space between them, “you know?”

Vax was stiffening beside her as if he had been petrified, muscles locking as he averted his gaze, hiding behind a curtain of hair.

“I know. Kiki, Keyleth, please believe me- I never meant it to hurt you, I just-“

“No, shoosh, I’m not done,” Keyleth continued, “Do you want to?”

“To hurt you? _No!_ ” There was affront in his voice now, and Keyleth desperately cast her mind back to find the word she said wrong, and suddnely he was gripping her twisting fingers and staring her straight in the face. “No! Keyleth, never, _please-_ ”

“No that’s not what I-“ Keyleth blew out a frustrated huff of air. “Vax, would it make you happy to kiss other people?”

He stilled completely.

“Vax?” She asked.

“I don’t know how you want me to answer that.”

“Oh my god Vax!” Keyleth sunk further into her pillows with a huff. “For once in your life, could you think about what makes you happy first? Please? Just- forget about this-“ she waved their clasped hands between them “-no wait, that’s not what I meant. Um.”

She opened and closed their hands. “Vax, Can you answer me? Honestly, yes or no? Just a couple of questions?”

“Alright.”

“Now, I know you love me,”

He opened his mouth, and Keyleth instinctively clapped her hand over it. “Nope. Just nod or shake your head. That’s all you get to do because otherwise you’re going to try to talk out of it, and then we might all die tomorrow, and we’ll never get another chance, and-“

Vax, instead of dislodging Keyleth’s hands on his mouth, rested his own on her forearms, and rubbed them comfortingly with his thumbs.

“When you kissed Scanlan earlier today, did you mean it? Were you just using the fight as an excuse to do something you already wanted to do?”

Vax hesitated, and nodded.

“Was it the same with Percy, on the carpet?”

Vax nodded. Keyleth bit her lip.

“Was it the same with me, in Whitestone?”

Vax looked away, and nodded again.

Keyleth let her hands fall from his face. “What was different?”

“You took it seriously. No one else took it seriously.”

“Oh my god Vax!” She slapped him in the chest, “Do you think its maybe because you tried to play them off as jokes!”

“It’s not like it matters now!” Vax said, “I have this!” he slid his hands up her wrists to grasp her own, and shook them. “I have this. And I’m _happy_ , Kiki. I wouldn’t trade this for anything.”

Keyleth let out a frustrated noise. “Would you listen to me, instead of trying to make yourself into a martyr for like, three seconds? If I said I wanted to kiss like, Pike or Grog,”

“and who doesn’t, really,”

“Right, would you be ok with me doing that?”

Vax sat back on his heels. “Keyleth, we will get right back to this, but I have to know, is this a hypothetical, or?”

Keyleth flushed, “Sort of? This is not about me right now. What I’m trying to say is-“

“Because” Vax interrupted, “if you do, I’d be fine with that, you know that, right? You know that I want you to be happy, no matter what?”

Keyleth blinked, and marveled for just a moment at Vax’s ability to say the exactly right thing and simultaneously completely miss the point.

“Vax.” She says, so there could be no misunderstanding. “I want you to go kiss Scanlan for me. It would make you very happy, and that would make me very happy, and you should have told me you wanted to do it in the first place.”

Vax opened his mouth, then shut it again. “No really, _Grog?”_

Keyleth jammed a finger in his chest. “ _Scanlan?_ No, really, _Scanlan?”_

“He’s very charming!” Vax defended. “Grog is-“

“He’s been very sensitive lately! Besides, we’ve been sparring a little bit, and uh, he can really-“ Keyleth mimed a toss. “You know.”

Something darkened in Vax’s eyes.

“Oh,” Said Keyleth, “ _Oh_ , is that something that you’d like to- I mean would you, if we did, want to watch or-?“

“Let’s not put our carts before our horses, now,” Vax said, slightly hoarse. “No one’s done anything yet.”

“Well, I haven’t,” Keyleth said, “You have, that’s the whole reason we’re having this conversation.”

“Right,” He licked his lips, “Sorry?”

“ _Vax_ ,” She pushed him back to his side on the mattress, and then draped an arm across his chest, yawning. “Would you stop worrying about things that aren’t about to kill us for like, two days and enjoy yourself? Go to sleep, and kiss Scanlan at breakfast in the morning. It’ll be fun.”

Vax’s thumb ran over the knuckles on her hand. “I love you, Kiki.”

“I love you too. Now go to sleep.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have seen 1 (One) fic in the Vax/Scanlan tag and 1 (One) Keyleth/Grog drabble on tumblr and I will set this ship in motion if I have to build the damn thing myself.


End file.
